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How we escaped suburbia by embracing exchange and life on the road
Visual artist Emma Moody-Smith shares the story of how she and her partner Shawn have spent the past 9 years downshifting, swapping suburban England for life in a motorhome and, crucially, embracing exchange. Here she offers insight and advice to others looking to do the same.
Reclaiming our ancient indigenous wisdom and a sense of ‘the village’
I think I am unusual. I can find a confidence inside that allows me to take risks. This confidence allows me to initiate things that I feel passionate about and because I see their worth in the world. I can do this even if I think I don’t know what I’m doing.
New no-dig, organic market garden for Manchester: how you can help
We are starting a new NO DIG MARKET GARDEN that will bring fresh organic food to Manchester. You can help by joining our crowd funder at
How to grow your own woad: from seed to harvest
A natural dye you can harvest from the garden, textile artist Teresinha Roberts of Wild Colours explains how to grow your very own ‘indigo’ woad plant.
Internships on off-grid, established experimental woodland smallholding: learn how to set up your own project
Having been WWOOF hosts for over 10 years we have decided to expand what we offer to provide a more focused and valuable experience. The Pentiddy Woods Internship is an opportunity to join our family for 9 months living off-grid on an established experimental woodland smallholding.
The Wool Journey Part 8: wool scouring and drying
In the eighth installment of The Wool Journey with Sue Blacker at The Natural Fibre Company, we learn about the first stage of processing: wool scouring and drying.
Opportunity to live very close to nature, rent-free, in an Irish intentional community and education centre
There are two rent-free bedrooms available (one immediately, one soon) in the farmhouse at An Teach Saor. But this is not a place for people who want to save money. It’s a place for people who want to radically reduce their dependency on it all together.
Who can afford artisan goods? For truly green businesses, we have to kick the money habit
Hi, how’s business? As an artisan working with wool, January and February are usually peak season for me, but this year they’ve been the worst months on my records, despite the big freeze.
Sunflower Cohousing community looking for members
Our journey into community living started one evening in the Summer of 2009 when we were grouped around a campfire with friends discussing possible future lifestyle alternatives.
How might hunter-gatherers have lived on this land?
Emily Fawcett explores what it might be like to live like our ancestors, to live the old way, on this land. What would it mean to experience life and the land like the indigenous people of these islands – as hunter-gatherers, to return to the Old Way?
Interview with Matthew Slater: what’s mutual credit, how can it boost the Solidarity Economy, and what can we do to help? (plus webinar)
See yesterday’s blog post for an introduction to this article. This is an interview with Matthew Slater, who co-authored the Money & Society MOOC, a free masters level multidisciplinary online course. He co-drafted the Credit Commons white paper, a proposal for a global solidarity economy money system
The next great transition will be to the Solidarity Economy with a mutual credit exchange system
I’ve been working in the environmental field for over 20 years, and I believe, like the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, that we’re headed for ‘biological annihilation’, and like the good folk at the Dark Mountain Project, that a crash is coming that we may or may not recover from
Fancy volunteering for the summer at an off-grid, Ecological Land Coop smallholding?
Hi – we are James and Sukamala, tenants at Wild Geese Acres, Greenham Reach, which is an off-grid, low-impact farming project established in north Devon by the Ecological Land Coop (ELC) – see website. http://ecologicalland.coop.
How you can gain natural building skills for your own build for free, and help put up affordable, natural, community buildings
Some great ideas from Adrian at Wholewoods. Below are several ways that you can get your hands dirty and gain natural building skills for free, whilst helping to erect beautiful, affordable, natural buildings for schools, charities or educational organisations.
Proposal for a ‘one planet’ food revolution
This is the third in a series of articles about ‘one planet’ living – the first in rural areas, and the second in cities. Now we discuss the situation as regards food production.
On a small scale, why is it illegal to give food waste to chickens and other animals?
Imagine you have a factory producing sandwiches for supermarkets and petrol stations etc. Maybe you’re producing 100,000 packs a day or even more. Now imagine the worst thing that could happen. Perhaps someone comes in to work with food poisoning and contaminates the product and 100,000 people come down with food poisoning.
Democrats, Donald Trump and the dark underbelly of economic growth
Where is real ‘opposition’ in the West when all major parties support cancerous, perpetual growth? Surely it’s time for major political figures to stand up and say that the quest for perpetual economic growth is the engine behind the destruction of the biosphere, and will eventually kill us unless we stop.
The Wool Journey Part 7: uses of different fibre types
Continuing The Wool Journey, Sue Blacker of The Natural Fibre Company explains the uses of different fibre types. It is said that everything of a pig can be used but the squeak and the same is true of fleeces!
Webinar: a non-techie’s adventures with cryptocurrencies – a step-by-step guide to setting up a wallet and trading in Litecoin
This is the first of a series of webinars on specific aspects of the money system and various alternatives to it.
We’re running a series of webinars on how we might change the money system – starting with cryptocurrencies
We’re determined to spread the word that any attempts to move towards a more sustainable and democratic world are doomed to failure if they don’t address the money system.